


Diptych: Wall

by efnisien



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Double Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-10
Updated: 2010-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-06 02:09:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/efnisien/pseuds/efnisien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Angel, before and after.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Diptych: Wall

Buffy and her friends huddled behind charms and incantations as if the mere act of uninviting him would keep them safe. If it came to killing, all he needed was a rifle. Pump enough bullets into a Slayer--even through the boundary of no-invitation--and she died the same as any girl. Spike could complain about how long it was taking him to get rid of Buffy, but for all Spike's inner sentimentality, he didn't understand anything about the intimacy of murder. It had to be up close--close enough to breathe her breath, close enough to kiss her screams silent--to count.

* * *

It's not that anything prevents him from entering the school or its library--as he himself had told Buffy after the curse's effect was revealed. And it's not that he's intimidated by the vast knowledge represented by the precious tomes that Giles has populated the shelves with. A scholar he is not, but he has his own collection of ill-gotten books.

No: it's that every time he walks in, he sees Giles's wariness, Xander's distrust (but then, Xander knew from the start), Willow's fear, the subterranean heartbreak in Buffy's shadowed eyes. It's a more effective wall than lack of welcome ever was.


End file.
